Belorussian Military District

The Belorussian Military District was a military district of the Soviet Red Army that was active from 1914 to 1991. The district was initially an Imperial Russian Army military district during World War I, being designated as the "Minsk Military District". With the outbreak of the Russian Civil War, it was designated as the "Western Front" and then the "Western Military District", and it was redesignated the "Belorussian Military District" in October 1926 and then to the "Western Special Military District" in July 1940. The district covered the Byelorussian SSR (including the Smolensk area, Bryansk area, and parts of the Kaluga area), and it was disbanded in 1991 when the USSR dissolved and Belarus became an independent country.